(CNN) – The seat for California's 33rd congressional district has been taken for 40 years. So when Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman announced he was retiring, it became a mad scramble to replace him, with 18 candidates crawling, jumping, and pouncing out of the woodwork.

Given that the district represents everywhere from sunny Santa Monica to tony Beverly Hills, there are some interesting candidates, along with more traditional ones such as Democratic California state senator Ted Lieu, and Democrat Wendy Greuel who came in second in L.A.'s mayoral election last year.

CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for June 02, 2014 | 5 p.m.
— n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

OBAMA’S BIG GREEN GAMBLE: DEMANDING CARBON EMISSIONS CUTS ...President Barack Obama is using his executive authority to take his strongest action yet against climate change – proposing new EPA regulations. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency will announce a proposal Monday that would require power plants to cut their carbon emissions by 30% by 2030, a source briefed on the matter told CNN. -Josh Levs, Kevin Bohn and Erin McPike

(CNN) - A challenge to Alabama's Republican-drawn legislative maps, which some civil rights and political groups say amounts to an unconstitutional racial quota and gerrymandering, will be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

The justices announced Monday they would decide whether the redrawn boundaries crowded African-American voters into fewer black-majority districts, reducing their political clout in a state where they make up an estimated 27 percent of the population.

Washington (CNN) - The 2016 presidential election's some 2 1/2 years away. Even the unofficial start of the next race for the White House is still five months away. Yet Hillary Clinton has been, and remains, the object of Republicans' obsession.

Much of their criticism of the former secretary of state focuses on the September 11, 2012, attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. The incident - the first time a U.S. ambassador had been killed on duty in more than 30 years - happened during Clinton's watch as America's top diplomat.